Encantado

Inspired by Edgar Lee Masters's Spoon River Anthology and Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Pat Mora brings us the poetic monologues of Encantado, an imagined southwestern town. Each poem forms a story that reveals the complex and emotional journeys we take through life. Mora meanders through the thoughts of Encantado's residents - the mothers and sisters, brothers and fathers in whom we see slivers of ourselves and our loved ones - and paints a portrait of a community through its inhabitants' own diverse voices. Even the river has a voice we understand. Inspired by both the real and imagined stories around her, Mora transports us to the heart of what it means to join in a chorus of voices. A community. A town. Encantado.

Pat Mora is an author, speaker, educator, and literacy advocate. She has written more than forty-five books for adults, teens, and children. Her poetry collections include Chants, Borders, Communion, Agua Santa: Holy Water, Aunt Carmen's Book of Practical Saints, and Adobe Odes her books of nonfiction include Nepantla: Essays from the Land in the Middle and the family memoir House of Houses. The recipient of two honorary doctorates and a poetry fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, she lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.